Hello, Stranger
by Phoenix Miko
Summary: What will the gang do when Hiccup and Toothless find a girl shipwrecked on one of Berk's beaches? Is this the break Hiccup needs or is it another take on the Heather-incident?


_**A/N:**_I'm not really supposed to be writing anything yet since I'm swamped with college work and deadlines...not to mention codes...lots and lots of codes... anyway, originally, I'm a Jackunzel fan at heart and I already have a story planned out for those two. I'm just short on time. I wanted to give Hiccunzel a shot. Tell me what you guys think!

WARNING: Astrid might be a tad bit OC...

_**Disclaimer:**_I own the plot! Nothing else!

* * *

Hiccup fought the urge to roll his eyes at the scene. Snotlout and Astrid were chatting away in the middle of class. They've been at it for the past three hours and it was grating on his nerves. He tried calling their attention more than once but all he got were glares. Backing off, he chose to try and ignore them. Toothless offered to fire a warning shot, and the son's chief was more than tempted to consider his generous proposal, but still decided against it.

Those two have been inseparable ever since they swapped dragons. It turns out they had a lot in common, who knew right? At first, Hiccup didn't mind. In fact, he was thrilled that his two friends were getting along, but what really bothered him was the fact that they have their own world and it seems that attending Dragon Academy was too much of a hassle. On the other hand, Fishlegs, and even the twins, gave him strange looks every now and then. He figured that maybe it was just one of those times…

"All right since no one even bothers paying attention, we can all have the rest of the day off."

There were cheers and bonking of heads from the twins, a thankful smile from Fishlegs, but not even a glance from the two lovebirds. They just upped and left on their dragons. Hiccup frowned, he knew Snotlout was never one to listen to anybody, but he thought Astrid would at least be a little more courteous.

"Uh, Hiccup?"

Fishlegs walked towards him cautiously. The chief's son raised an eyebrow at his friend's behaviour, "Yeah, Fishlegs?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"I'm all ears." Hiccup waited patiently for the lad to finally make up his mind and say something. Just when he thought Fishlegs wasn't going to say anything any time soon, the said boy suddenly blurted out, "Have you noticed the way Snotlout and Astrid have been acting lately?"

Hiccup blinked and raised an eyebrow, "It would be a miracle if I didn't." was his dry reply.

"Doesn't it bother you, at all?"

"What do you mean? Of course it bothers me. It's kinda hard talking in front when no one's really listening."

"No, no, I mean, uh, how should I put this?"

"What he means is if you're at all bummed out about Astrid finally picking Snotlout over you!" came Tuff's exasperated voice.

Fishlegs gave them a disapproving look, "Guys, I was trying to be less direct!"

Ruffnut rolled her eyes, "We know, and it was taking forever."

"Uh, I'm not really-" started Hiccup.

Tuffnut stood beside his sister with a devious look on his face, "Yeah and we all know what happens when Fishlegs takes too long."

Fishlegs crossed his arms, "And what exactly would that be, Tuffnut?"

"Ooh! Is that one of those twenty questions thing? All right give me a second! Uh… wait… Argh! I got nothin'." Ruff punched her twin in the head.

Hiccup watched as the three of them continued arguing as if he wasn't there. Shaking his head, he approached Toothless. The black dragon had been waiting for him by the exit.

"Come on, bud. What do you say we get out of here?"

The dragon grunted in agreement and the two of them fled the arena.

Finally away from the academy and out of earshot of any Viking, Hiccup let out a frustrated sigh, "Honestly, bud, even _I _don't know how I do it. Thank Thor I only have to deal with the five of them. I don't know how I can keep this up."

Toothless snorted as if saying that this was partly Hiccup's fault, too, since he was the one who rounded the gang up in the first place. The dragon rider chuckled, "Yea, you're right and they are my friends. It's just that, at times, they can be very…overwhelming." He felt Toothless rumble beneath him.

"Hm, all right, bud, would you like to practice that new move we've been working on?" Toothless rumbled an affirmative. Hiccup was just getting ready when the dragon whirled his head, a wild look in his eyes.

"All right, it's nice to see your enthusia—WOAH! Toothless!?"

The Night Fury dived downward with a growl. Hiccup held on tight, trying to calm him down, "Toothless, slow down!"

Said dragon ignored his trainer and instead kept his gaze directed below them. Hiccup, still trying to reign in his friend, saw that they were headed straight for the beach or, more specifically, a shipwrecked boat on the beach surrounded by a bunch of wild boars. Hiccup squinted. Boars usually stayed in the forests, what were they doing out here?

"Toothless, plasma blast, but make sure not to hit the boat!"

The black reptile obeyed and shot a warning blast just enough to scare the boars away. Once they were gone, Hiccup and Toothless landed and neared the pile of broken wood.

"Well, that was strange. Let's see what we have here."

Hiccup dismounted and carefully inspected the wreckage, "It doesn't seem to be a Berserker or an Outcast ship. I don't see any crests, symbols…nothing." He turned to his dragon, "What do you think, bud? Should we be worried?"

The dragon grunted and walked casually over to the other side of the boat. He removed a couple of planks in his way. Hiccup came up behind him, "What've you got there?" The Night Fury spared him a glance before he carefully dragged out a body.

Hiccup's eyes widened, "What the-?"

There, at Toothless' feet, was a girl.

* * *

"Hiccup, are you serious!?" shrieked Astrid.

"Uh, not that I'm against helping people washed up on shore, but don't you remember what happened last time we found a girl shipwrecked on the beach?" Fishlegs was visibly keeping his distance from the figure on Hiccup's bed. He had a hard time seeing as the girl was actually pretty sick.

"Oh, you mean Heather? Yeah, that was some betrayal! I wish I could pull that off." exclaimed Tuff. He received a slap to the head from his twin, "You wish! The only person you can fool is yourself."

"Can't disagree with that! Wait, what?"

Hiccup cleared his throat, "Guys! Can we focus on the situation here for a minute?"

"What's so scary about this girl anyway? It's not like she's gonna jump out and bite your toes, you know. If I were you, which I'm not, thank Thor, I'd say she needs a healer."

Everyone looked at Snotlout with wide eyes.

"What? I'm just sayin'!" he said, holding up his hands in defence.

"I never thought I'd say this but I actually agree with Snotlout." Hiccup walked over to his bed.

Snotlout crossed his arms, a smug look on his face, "Of course you do!"

Ignoring him, Hiccup continued, "Whether or not we should trust her is not the issue. Not right now, anyway. Fishlegs, I need you to get Gothi. She would know what to do."

The large boy nodded and scuttled outside to get Meatlug.

"Astrid, you and Snotlout get my father and Gobber. They need to see this." Both of them nodded and set off.

"What about us?" asked Tuff.

"Uh, you guys can…hm…ah, inspect her ship. It's probably still on the beach."

The twins' eyes brightened up, "Awesome! We're on it!"

They hopped on their dragon, leaving Toothless, Hiccup, and the girl alone in his room.

Hiccup looked back at her. She had long, _really _long, golden hair. It was braided all the way down to her bare feet. Her lips were chapped and there were a few cuts on her face. Shame, she looked beautiful, too. Her dress looked like something that used to be well-sewn by impressive needlework. Now, it was reduced to a dirty, tattered cloth. Still, for some strange reason, nothing about her said Viking. Her clothes, her hair, her face—everything was too gentle to be associated with Vikings in any way.

"Is this another one of Alvin's traps?"

Toothless nudged his arm, making Hiccup place a hand on his head, "I know, bud. You're worried, aren't you?"

Toothless grumbled and rubbed his snout on the girl's arm. Hiccup caught the little action and raised an eyebrow, "That's a first. You normally don't take kindly to strangers." The dragon sniffed before making his way back to his rock bed for some well-deserved rest. Hiccup smiled and shook his head.

After another few minutes, the gang returned with their tasks. Hiccup briefed Gothi, Stoick, and Gobber about the situation, being as careful with his words as he possibly could without lying.

"So, you're saying that maybe she isn't a trap sent by Alvin?"

"I-I'm just saying that she doesn't even look like a Viking so, you know, maybe, she's just _honestly _washed up on Berk's shores." Stuttered Hiccup, trying to make things sound less crazy than it actually is, because the truth is, these are dangerous times.

"Well, the lad has a point, Stoick. She doesn't even _smell_ like a Viking, and that's saying a lot. A Viking's smell is not something a week's worth of seawater can wash off."

Hiccup cringed, "I'll pretend I didn't just hear that. So what do you think, dad?"

Everyone turned to Stoick. He seemed to be taking this rather well.

"For now, Gothi can nurse her back to health."

Hiccup smiled, "Thank you, dad."

"Oh, don't thank me yet, son. I wasn't finished. I said Gothi can nurse her…in the dungeon."

Green eyes widened, "What!?"

"You heard, the chief." Gobber made a move towards the bed, but Hiccup got in the way, "W-What did I just say? She's sick! Putting her in the dungeon will just make her worse!"

The chief put a hand on his son's shoulder, "Hiccup, we can't risk endangering your, or anyone else's, life. We made a mistake once before, we cannot afford to do it again."

"B-But, dad! If this is about Heather, no matter what she did at first, she ended up helping us in the end! Come on, dad." argued the dragon trainer.

"We hear you, lad, but not everyone is likely to turn out like that lass. Stoick's just tryin' to protect you." Commented Gobber. Before he could say anything, the girl was in Gobber's arms and the three adults were out of the door.

Hiccup slumped his shoulders in defeat.

"Wow, that was harsh!" said Tuffnut as he came to stand beside Hiccup, "Oh, yeah, we almost forgot. We found this lying around in her boat." Ruffnut handed something to her twin.

"What is it?" asked Astrid.

Hiccup reached for it but Snotlout snatched it away, "_I'll _open it!" Hiccup fought the urge to roll his eyes, "Be my guest."

* * *

Six dragon trainers were huddled together staring at the weird-looking, gold ring.

"What is it?" asked Fishlegs.

"If we knew, we wouldn't just be looking at it." Retorted Snotlout.

"I would! Maybe..Oooh, it's shiny! MINE!" exclaimed Tuff. He reached for it the same time as Ruff, "No way! It's mine!"

Hiccup sighed, "Le-Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Blah! Blah! Blah! Whatever! This baby's gonna make me rich!" Snotlout held up the object victoriously.

Astrid snatched it from him, "Oh no you're not! This doesn't belong to us!"

"Haven't you ever heard of the saying 'finders keepers, losers weepers'?" pouted the Jorgenson boy.

"Oh, yea, you're right! That means this belong to me, Tuffnut the Finder!"

"What? _I_ was the one who found it! Gimme!" shouted Ruffnut. Snotlout joined in the fray again, "You're both wrong! It's awesome, just like me, so it's mine!"

Fishlegs tried to reason with them, "Cut it out, guys? This really isn't the time to be fighting." Only to have the three teens yell at him, "Shut it, Fishlegs!"

Astrid rubbed her temples, before trying to pry Snotlout off of Tuff.

Hiccup smacked his face with his hand, "Toothless, do you mind?"

The dragon lifted his head from his sleeping position, roared loudly, and going back to sleep once everyone calmed down.

"Thank you. Now, where were we? Uh, don't answer that." He added the last part quickly when Ruffnut opened her mouth.

"Well, it's obviously some sort of accessory." Stated Astrid as she crossed her arms.

"It would be too big to wear around the wrists or the ankles." Observed their strategist.

"I think it's a crown. Guys, why didn't you show this to us sooner?"

"Uh, 'cause you were too busy arguing with the chief. What's a crown, anyway?" asked Tuff.

"Uh, _this_? Think about it. Where else can you wear it? It's can't be stretched for it to be a belt. Besides, if this was a crown then, that girl must've been…Come on, guys, come on, lead us home!"

Fishlegs' eyes widened, "Then that means she's royalty!"

"Exactly. We have to tell my dad." Just when Hiccup was about to wake Toothless, a hand placed itself on his shoulder, "Hiccup, what is it with you and that girl? Why are you so set on _babysitting _her?" He looked at Astrid, "What are you talking about …?"

"Can you imagine what your father might think?"

Hiccup thought for a moment, "Uh, I don't see anything wrong with telling him our latest discovery. Come on, Toothless."

Before Astrid and the others could say anything else, he was gone. Furious, the young Hofferson balled her fists and stomped out of the house. Snotlout and the others looked on, "What's gotten into her?"

Fishlegs lifted a finger, "Maybe she's jealous?" Snotlout burst into laughter, "Pfft! As if! Hahaha! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

* * *

TBC…

Sorry for the mistakes! Hope you enjoyed, read and review!


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